Saturday, May 16, 2009

Thursday, May 14 was a lucky day for me. It was 777 days left 'til retirement and also the day that my kids took me to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Phoenix. Absolutely great concert. It was the four of us and it's nice to be together. The weather started out a bit warm, too warm for Linda, but by the time the sun set it was really nice. Jimmy played many of the songs I'd hoped for. The band played for over two hours but there are so many good Buffett songs that he just didn't have time for them all. One of the interesting things was the diversity of the crowd. We had lawn seats so we were amongst a large group of folk who were standing and sitting on the lawn. There were many people my age, most of whom were dressed in Hawaiian style shirts. Then there were the younger people, some of whom couldn't afford shirts. That's ok for the guys but not so good for the girls. Right in front of us were several girls who came to the concert despite their lack of upper attire. I think they were trying to get money for new clothes because they kept rubbing up against the guys, probably trying to pry the guy's wallets out of their pants. Or something. Anyway, it was a great show from right in front of us all the way to the stage.

Today is Saturday. I spent much of the day under Linda's van with Lela. We worked hard to change out the O2 sensors. One came out right quick but the second one took us literally two hours. There just wasn't much room for wrench twisting. We were able to cut wires off and make the removal SLIGHTLY easier, but when installing the new one we didn't have that option. We had to put the wrench on the nut, twist as best we could, turn the wrench over, twist a little, turn the wrench over, twist as best we could. It took us forty-five minutes to turn about 1/2 inch of threads into the fitting. I just could NOT have done it without Lela. She keeps right up with me and in most cases is ahead of me. She can anticipate what needs to be done next and help prepare, but best of all, she can see how it works and therefore figure how it comes apart and goes back together. She gets greasy with me and doesn't seem to mind. The real difference is that she looks better than me when she cleans up. We are both sore and I've taken some hard drugs for the pain in my shoulder.

Linda, Mary Lynne and Brandon got some good stuff done around the yard. The most visible thing was that they replaced the carpeting on the entrance to the playhouse. It looks good. They did a nice job.